I guess you could call this a socialization question...
And if you have any other ideas on how to socialize our future pup (with other dogs, people, and noises) they would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much! |
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| Absolutely, I'd love to be able to bring my sheepies to work with me. Lucky you! Just be sure he's had all those shots! |
I'm glad someone else thinks its a good idea.  I don't want to overload the poor guy, and will most likely start doing it when he's around 16 weeks. That way he'll have had most (if not all) of his boosters, his rabies vaccine, and he'll be on heartworm and flea and tick preventatives. I'm super happy that he'll be able to spend time more time with me. |
I would be afraid my pup (or dog) would pick up something from a sick dog coming in.  I usually avoid the vet's office for social visits. Same way with the human Dr offices. I don't read (touch) the magazines, as they are handled by all the sick people. And I'm an RN, so I KNOW what they all have.  |
| Dawn - Amy takes her puppies to her clinic with her starting even earlier than 4 mos with no problems. Though she doesn't put them in the area where dogs (other than her own dogs) are kept, but rather either in with the receptionist, or if they need some quiet time, in her own office. I would be more concerned about giving a 16 week old puppy a rabies shot. I try to wait till six months if I can. Or putting them on heartworm preventive that young. Guess it would depend where you are and what time of year it is, but I can't think of a good reason to start them that young in most cases. Same thing with front line. Way to many chemicals to bombard an underdeveloped immune system with. Makes the natural exposre to whatever comes through the clinic door sort of pale in comparison. Bottomline, though, I wouldn't rule out taking a puppy with me out of hand. It is great for socialization and potty training. Kristine |
Mad Dog wrote: Dawn - Amy takes her puppies to her clinic with her starting even earlier than 4 mos with no problems. Though she doesn't put them in the area where dogs (other than her own dogs) are kept, but rather either in with the receptionist, or if they need some quiet time, in her own office. I would be more concerned about giving a 16 week old puppy a rabies shot. I try to wait till six months if I can. Or putting them on heartworm preventive that young. Guess it would depend where you are and what time of year it is, but I can't think of a good reason to start them that young in most cases. Same thing with front line. Way to many chemicals to bombard an underdeveloped immune system with. Makes the natural exposre to whatever comes through the clinic door sort of pale in comparison. Bottomline, though, I wouldn't rule out taking a puppy with me out of hand. It is great for socialization and potty training. Kristine Ok, having been in both Amy's office and my vet's , I need to clarify.  My vet has a very small office, so keeping your own pup separate from a sick dog coming in is not really possible. And in Amy's office, it totally IS possible. So if it's a safe option, go for it. |
Dawn, I should have clarified.  The clinic I work at has two separate areas, with two separate doors. There's the actually clinic area that has a waiting room, reception, exam rooms, etc. Then there's the boarding section which is completely separate. We don't allow sick dogs in our boarding area, as so many dogs are in and out that it would quickly turn into an epidemic. As far as the vaccines, I had no idea that they shouldn't be that early. I know that for flea/tick/heartworm, our vet was saying that she only does it that early because our area is, quite literally, infested. Why wait so long for the rabies and heartworm/tick/flea preventative? Aren't they at risk until they get it? |
| Down here, we have to give the first rabies vaccine at 4 months - unless we want to get kicked out of puppy class. It is standard procedure here. |
Mom of 3 wrote: Down here, we have to give the first rabies vaccine at 4 months - unless we want to get kicked out of puppy class. It is standard procedure here. That may help explain why I don't take my dogs to puppy classes. Or board them (mandatory bordatella - a vaccine I won't give my dogs, period). Etc etc. I understand why businesses require these things. I also know that every dog is an individual, so I'm not a big fan of blanket policies you might say.Now, if you wait with say the rabies vaccine you also have to be very vigilant. That usually means putting off some socialization, so it's a trade off. I know my dogs' temperaments. They don't need to be hyper-exposed to everything at a young age to not turn out fearful and so on. I also know the breed. We have high incidences of immune-mediated problems, probably worsened by over vaccinating, too much other chemicals, and spaying/neutering young. We already give puppy vaccines when the maternal antibodies are probably still present and interfering with the usefulness of the vaccine, but we can't know for sure, so we vaccinate them over and over again. It's not that they need to be vaccinated two-three times as puppies against the same things. It's that we're trying to cover our bases. Understandable - parvo, for instance - scary stuff. Potentially deadly stuff. But it also means we are bombarding underdeveloped (immature)immune systems with vaccines. I feel more comfortable waiting till 5-6 mos IF I can for the rabies vaccines, which is one that has a rather higher than average rate of adverse reactions. I look at each of these things individually. If I lived in an area that was endemic with heartworm, for instance, depending on the season I got a puppy, I might want to start the dog on a preventative much earlier than my vet (here) would typically recommend. It goes back to each dog being in individual and everyone's situation being different, not that there's a specific right or wrong (within legal parameters) Kristine |
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